Monday was just a regular day. The sun was shining. The weather was warm (second warmest city in the US that day). I, like many others, was slowly adjusting from weekend bliss back to the workday grind. And the WebMaster? The WebMaster was doing what he does best — scour the internet.

By mid-afternoon, the chase was on. I received an email with a link to a facebook site. (For those familiar with large corporations, facebook is often on the list of unnavigable websites). Knowing this, the WebMaster put together a short description of his find.

“ESPN is hosting a best sandwich named after an athlete contest.”

A true statement, but not exactly descriptive. I asked for a little more detail. WebMaster proceed to tell me that ESPN is hosting a Fanwich facebook challenge. People/restaurants submit photos and a description of their athlete-named sandwich for facebookers to vote a winner. However, he did give me the disclaimer that only REAL athletes had sandwiched posted at that time.

I couldn’t argue with him. The names on the list are a who’s who of professional athletes. I certainly don’t belong in that league. However, the partnership with Jethros and our Man vs Food success means maybe, just maybe our overweight-yet-underdog sandwich has a chance.

Watch parties at Jethro’s locations across Des Moines. I’ll be at the original in the Drake area. Come join the fun. Or tune in at home. Either way, it promises to be a show Des Moines gluttons can be proud of for years to come.

I want to send a big Thank You to Jethros BBQ for helping making all this happen. A special thanks to owner Bruce Gerleman for coming up with the idea and offering to put my name on the menu. A special thanks to Dom Iannarelli for sitting down with me and conceiving this monstrous mound of meat. A big shoutout to all the Jethros managers, servers, and cooks for treating me so well and making Jethros what it’s become today.

And of course, a big thanks to Adam Richman and the Man vs Food staff. It was great to see a behind-the-scenes look at such a production (more on this to come).

And we’re back. Back to work. Back with inspiration. Back with a plan.

Four months into my working career and my head finally stopped spinning. Drastic life changes – starting a job and buying a house are enough to make this man go insane. And stress. Don’t forget the stress.

But I’m starting to settle in. I’m excited to have a schedule. Because for everything basketball is, predictable it certainly is not.

That being said, it’s hard not to miss. The everyday competition and excuse to be in great shape are not as easy to come by in the working world. Work highs will never be the same as basketball highs.

But that’s not a bad thing. Actually, being settled in Des Moines has many advantages.

More-so than anything else, being back helps me realize how proud I am of what my teammates and I helped build. There’s still a buzz in the city. Almost three years have gone by, but Drake fans will never forget. Though daily life can put it to the back-burner, I can’t help but feeling fortunate for having such great teammates and such a tremendous experience.

Congrats UNI! What a win against Kansas. Great to see a Valley team showing the rest of the country the quality of basketball in the MVC.
I’ve spent the last week with Lindsay in Providence, Rhode Island visiting my sister and her fiance (Stephen). It’d been almost two years now since the WebMaster and I ventured that way — and Linds and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit this time.

Leaving out of Omaha, we left Friday (12th), drove two hours to Nebraska, and were on our way. Naturally, the weather here in Iowa was nice. What happens when we leave? Well, the weather here improves, but apparently it was monsoon season in Providence. (There isn’t really a monsoon season in Providence. I think the average rainfall in March is only about 2 in. Same in April. But the 7.5″ of rain in our four days there made it seem like monsoon season) We arrive to rain. The next day, it rains. The next day, it rains. The next day, it rains. And when I say rain, I don’t mean sprinkle. It rained hard. The whole time. (Like I said over seven inches)

Battling through the elements we made the most of our trip. Focusing on mostly indoor activities, Sara showed us around Providence, Newport, and Bristol. We toured the Breakers mansion and took mostly driving tours. We shopped in Providence Place, the Wrentham Outlets, and Trader Joe’s.

As a former Providence Preservation Society employee, Sara is a great tour guide. She knows the area really well and offers insight about various locations. Its amazing how many different facts she can spout off about the historical significance of each location. Traveling was so much more fun for Linds and I because we basically had a personal tour guide.

By Monday evening, the storm past. Linds, Sara, Stephen, and I went to a great steak, seafood, and sushi restaurant in Providence called Ten. The food was great. Even though I’ve never been a huge sushi fan, I would recommend the Surf & Turf roll to anyone not thrilled about the idea of sushi. The real event of the night, however, was drinks after dinner. We walked down the street to a place called DownCity, which has a reputation for a great drink selection. Apparently, Monday night is also Drag Queen Karaoke. Led by a 6’2″ Sabrina, we were entertained by a variety of different songs. It was an enjoyable, very interesting, but still enjoyable experience.

The next morning, Stephen drove Linds and I to the train station and we took the train to Boston. Staying in Back Bay, we dropped our things off at the hotel and went off into the city. Surprisingly, the weather was finally beautiful. No snow, green grass, and 50 degree temperatures felt amazing as we walked through cobblestone streets and buildings from the 18th century. Though I could never compare to Sara, I did my best to guide Linds and offer any information I could about our surroundings.

First on our agenda was to head to my favorite pizza place – Pizzeria Regina. As always the pizza was amazing [Webmaster Confirmed Fact]. Afterward we went to the Institute of Contemporary Art, walked the the Commons and Public Garden, perused the shops on Newbury Street and went back to our hotel before heading back to the North End for Dinner. The next two days were spend doing much the same – a lot of walking and sightseeing. Sara and Stephen met us the next afternoon and we experienced St. Patrick’s Day in the city.

Before we knew it, it was Thursday. Time to go back to Providence before ultimately *gulp* heading back to Des Moines. We packed Thursday night, had one last great meal, and were on our way to the airport at 5:15 AM Friday morning.

Arriving in Omaha we were tired from our trip and met by a very disturbing site when we touched down – snow. We couldn’t believe it. After having to deal with rain for four days before finally enjoying some sunshine, we leave to come back to snow? How is that fair? Then, we get back to Des Moines, unpack, fall asleep, wake up the next morning, and WHAT? Two inches of snow on the ground? Unbelievable.
Thankfully, the sun appears to want to come out this week and we can expect temperatures to improve. Regardless, seeing snow welcoming us back from a great trip hardly offers incentive to come back. Thanks Iowa weather. Thanks a lot.

I can’t believe it’s finally May (well really the end of April, but basically May). I have now been here nine full months. Never, not even in my childhood, did I even consider being a professional athlete as a distant possibility. But here I am, nine months in to my new career and I still can’t believe it.

While time went by fast, it has been a long and tough year so far. Leaving home and moving to another country was exciting, but it was so hard to leave family and friends behind. I went through something similar when I left high school to attend Drake, but the friends I made and all the wonderful people back in Des Moines made it much more difficult this time. It is the support of all those people that has helped keep me going even in the toughest times this year.

But now here I am, one game left before playoffs in my first professional season. Playoffs? Playing in best of five game series? I never would have imagined being in this position.

Now lets just hope we can build off the momentum of our win last night. We hosted arguable Germany’s best team and lone Euroleague representative ALBA Berlin. We’ve lost to Berlin twice already this season, first, a thrashing in Berlin where they dominated early and we never got back into the game, and a hard fought loss in Hamburg during the Cup semifinals. But this time, we got out revenge. After spending most of the game behind by a few points, we made a run and ALBA could never fully recover.

We put together a strong effort on both ends of the floor and did our best to force ALBA out of their game plan. Although neither team played great, it was a well-played game many consider a playoff preview. Though I did not play until the third quarter, I ended up with 7 points including two fast break layups and a three (yes to people in Des Moines, I have shot and made three-pointers this year, crazy right?).

So like I said, we now have one more game following a two-week break and then move in to playoffs. Hopefully we can continue to play well, as many are considering us a dark horse to make a run in the playoffs. We also have a chance to move up as high as the four seed with some help before the end of the season. As for now, we get both Tuesday and Wednesday off, so I will try my best to explore some more of the German countryside. I’ll be posting another update in the next few days.